Republicans Debate Who is Least in Favor of Emergency Care for Rape Victims

Thu, 02/23/2012 - 11:55am — Miranda

Republicans Debate Who is Least in Favor of Emergency Care for Rape Victims

In case we needed any more evidence that the former mainstream of the GOP has gone completely off the deep end[1], Republican presidential candidates spent several minutes at last night’s CNN debate discussing which of them is least in favor of allowing rape victims to have access to emergency contraception. Watch:

The exchange came at the heels of a week that was chock-full of shockingly regressive Republican attacks on women. PFAW’s Marge Baker summed last week up in the Huffington Post:

Just this week, we have seen not just the stunning spectacle of major presidential candidates coming out against birth control coverage[2], but Republicans in the Senate holding up domestic violence protections [3]because they protect too many people; a potential vice presidential candidate pick poised to sign a law requiring[4] women to receive medically unnecessary vaginal probes without their consent; a leading presidential candidate claiming[5] that "emotions" will get in the way of women serving in combat; and a House committee holding a hearing on birth control access -- with a panel[6] consisting entirely of men.

And that’s not to mention billionaire Santorum supporter Foster Friess’s saying he didn’t see why birth control was expensive because[6], “Back in my day, they used Bayer aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn't that costly."

The GOP candidates’ exchange over emergency contraception for rape victims took this tone-deafness to a new level of insensitivity. Does Mitt Romney really think he’ll appeal to female voters by attacking not just contraception but emergency care for rape victims?

It looks like not. TPM reports [7]that since Romney started attacking birth control, he’s “suffered a precipitous drop in support among women voters.”